Monday, May 3, 2010

Who's to blame for the oil spill? Dick Cheney

Who's to blame for the oil spill? Dick Cheney
BY ALEX PAREENE

AP Photo/Ron Edmonds
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill could end up being the worst American man-made environmental catastrophe of this generation. With the oil still spilling and investigations into the causes yet to come, it's too early to neatly assign blame to any one person. But for now, let's hold Dick Cheney personally responsible for the whole thing.

Here's the evidence: The Wall Street Journal reports that the oil well didn't have a remote-control shut-off switch. The reason it didn't have a thing that it seems every single offshore drilling rig should have? According to environmental lawyer Mike Papantonio, it's because Dick Cheney's energy task force decided that the $500,000 switches were too expensive, and they didn't want to make BP buy any.

Is that not enough reason to blame the former Dark Lord of the Naval Observatory? Guess what: Halliburton is involved, too! The Los Angeles Times reports that BP contracted Dick Cheney's old company to cement the deepwater drill hole. Cementing the hole was, according to the U.S. Minerals Management Service, "the single most-important factor in 18 of 39 well blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico over a 14-year period." And Hallburton is already under investigation for faulty cementing in an Australian well last year.

The spill will very likely destroy the fragile economies of at least five states and it could even plunge the nation back into a recession. So thanks, Dick. Nice work.

4 comments:

"The Wall Street Journal reports that the oil well didn't have a remote-control shut-off switch"

Instead of just reading one paper and taking their word for it why don't you read a little more and find out the the switch malfuntioned....it was there and is there but not working, what do you think the subs are working on.....Why is it that all you libs whant to throw the blame on everyone when hey, It happened. I live on the coast, a block away from it and If all you that were trying to blame someone would just come down here and get ready to help clean up the beachs then you might have awhole different out look on life. But I don't expect you to come down here because you would not want to get your hands dirty for fear that it might gum up your key board.

Actaully Randy, this well did not have a remote switch. The equipment that you are speaking of the the blow-out preventer (BOP), which sits on the rig deck. The equipment Alex is writing about is the subsea safety valve, which is designed to shut off the well at the sea surface if certain conditions fail. Every rig has a BOP, of course, but very few jurisdictions require a subsea valve (only Brazil and Norway from what I've read thus far). Assuming the subsea valve did it's job, the leak would have been prevented, although I'm not sure that it would've saved the lives of the 11 workers killed.

Nobody's really sure if the BOP failed in some way or if it was human error (someone misread something, resulting in the BOP stack being removed when it wasn't safe), but either way the equipment Alex is referring to definitely was not in place here.

Randy, the libs ARE the ones cleaning the beach and rescuing animals. But we should not have had to face this task in the first place. So since you are such a BP supporter, jump right in with saving your area. Be a leader.

It's high time that our government and current president take full authority and control over these industries and corporations. Safety rules and regs that are truly useful must be reinstated and created to prevent further events of this type. Cheney's policies adn palm greasing have caused this catastrophe.Ultimately this must be the bell weather event that truly gets us off the oil fix and into new forms of CLEAN replenishable energy. All fossil fuels including oil are ruining our country both economically and now physically.Dick Cheney is the most heinous, repugnant and worst official that this country has ever had to hold office or position of power. He along with BP et al must be held accountable for these terrible acts that affect millions of people and the environment.

Who is BP Slick

John L. Wathen, Hurricane Creekkeeper, located in Tuscaloosa County Alabama. I am the enforcement and advocacy branch of the Friends of Hurricane Creek.
Photographer / videographer, I have dedicated my life to exposing the truth about pollution and lack of accountability by the industries and agencies who use our waterways as waste conduits.